xDSD Gryphon Transportable DAC Headphone Amplifier User Manual

: June 6, 2024
: ifi

IFI xDSD Gryphon User Manual

IFI XDSD Gryphon

S-Balanced 3.5mm headphone output

Connect 3.5mm headphones.

Balanced 4.4mm headphone output

Connect balanced 4.4mm Pentaconn headphones.

Audio Format LED (kHz)

The LED colour scheme indicates the audio format and sampling frequency received by the xDSD Gryphon from the music source.

LED	Mode
Yellow	PCM 48/44.1kHz
White	PCM 768/705.6/384/352.8/192/176.4/ 96/88.2kHz
Cyan	DSD 128/64
Red	DSD 512/256
Green	MQA
Blue	MQA Studio
Magenta	Original Sample Rate*

INPUT LED

LED	INPUT
Magenta	USB
Blue	Bluetooth
Green	S/PDIF
Yellow	Line (Balanced 4.4mm/S-E 3.5mm)

Volume LED

The LED colour scheme indicates the current volume level.

LED	Volume
Red	-2 to +6 dB (100%-92%)
Yellow	-20 to -3 dB (91%-74%)
Green	-38 to -21 dB (73%-56%)
Magenta	-56 to -39 dB (55%-38%)
Blue	-95 to -57 dB (37%-0%)
Flashing LED	-Mute

Multi-function knob

Controls:

Power ON/OFF (long press 3s)
Analogue volume control (turn)
Mute/Unmute (a short press)
Menu settings (long press item 9 Settings button (1s). Control menu refer to item 9)

Power ON/OFF

Long press the power switch to power on/off.

Analogue volume control

Warning: Due to the high power of xDSD Gryphon, always start at a low volume level, so there is no risk of damage to your headphones or your hearing. iFi audio is not responsible for any hearing or equipment damage from misuse.

Menu settings

I) USB data port charger (Item 15. USB-C input)

‘ON’, this port can be used for charging.
‘OFF’, this port is for signal input only.

II) BT voice prompt

ON/OFF mode, turn on/off Bluetooth voice announcement.

III) Screen Brightness

With the ‘high’ and ‘low’ brightness modes, the display will remain On. With the brightness mode ‘off’, if no operation is performed, the display will go to sleep after three seconds.

VI) Digital filter

The following 3 digital filters are available:

‘BP’ Bit-Perfect, no digital filtering
‘GTO’ Upsampled to 384/352kHz, minimum filtering, no pre-ringing, minimum post ringing
‘STD’ Modest filtering, modest pre and post ringing

XSpace Matrix LED

The XSpace Matrix(on/off ) recreates a holographic sound field. It is a pure analogue signal processing circuit designed for listening to headphones as if one was listening to speakers. This addresses the ‘music inside the head’ sensation, which makes for uneasy listening.

XBass+ LED

Many headphones lack the correct bass response. XBass is an analogue circuit designed to ‘add back’ the lost bass response for more accurate reproduction of the original music.

Tip: Sonically-hindering DSP is NOT used for XBass+ nor XSpace matrix systems. They use the highest-quality discrete components and operate purely in the analogue domain. Hence all the clarity and resolution of the original music is retained.

Settings

Cycles between:

Off > XBass > XSpace > XBass and XSpace (short press)
Menu settings (long press)/Return to Home (short press)

Input selector/Bluetooth pairing

This button cycles between the following inputs:

USB > Bluetooth > S/PDIF > Line (Balanced 4.4mm/S-E 3.5mm)

Note: Please select the input channel according to your audio source input mode. For example, you need to switch the input channel to ’USB’ when using the USB input.

The xDSD Gryphon receives Bluetooth signals via aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX LL, LDAC, LHDC/HWA, AAC and SBC.

Bluetooth pairing

When the Bluetooth input is selected, the Bluetooth icon in the display will flash and search for a previously paired device. If a stored device is not found, it will automatically enter pairing mode and flash.

Press and hold the button (1s) to enter pairing mode until the Bluetooth icon flashes. To pair, find the ‘iFi Hi-Res Audio’ Bluetooth device from the nearby devices list on your phone.

The xDSD Gryphon can store up to 8 paired Bluetooth devices.

OLED display

The OLED display shows the audio format, sampling rate, + volume, input mode, XSpace/XBass and battery level.

XBass+ mode adjustment

Research into headphone frequency response showed that a + purely ‘flat’ response is not correct. Our long present XBass+ fits the profile of the low- frequency correction required. However, it was also shown that a certain amount of upper midrange boost is needed to give many headphones a more ‘natural’ sound. This upper midrange region is usually called the ‘presence’ region; we have used this term to indicate the upper midrange + correction. In the xDSD Gryphon, XBass+ (or perhaps better HPEQ) can be selected to have either Bass + Presence correction, only Bass or only Presence correction.

USB-C (5V) charging input

For charging only. Due to the very high-power nature of xDSD Gryphon, it will take ~12 hours and ~6 hours for a standard and high-powered charger, respectively, to fully recharge.

Tip: When the xDSD Gryphon is off and a 5V USB power supply is detected, the LED will change colour to show the various states of charge (see next section).

Tip: We advise you to charge the xDSD Gryphon switched off. You can listen to music while charging, but it may take longer to be fully charged, depending on the volume level and the headphones used.

Tip: The xDSD Gryphon may be slightly warm to touch when it is simultaneously in use and being charged.

LED for Battery Status

LED	Status
Green*	> 85%
Yellow *	≤ 85%
Red (flashing)	≤ 10%

*Battery LED will flash when it is charging.

USB-C input

Connect your phone to the xDSD Gryphon with a Lightning to USB Camera Adapter (Apple) or USB On-The-Go (OTG) cable (Android). When using other audio sources, please connect with a USB cable. This USB-C port is for data transfer only, it can also be configured to charge, see item 6, Menu Settings(I).

Tip: For Apple iOS and Android devices, please use battery power, otherwise you may receive error messages from your device.

Note: For use with PC it is necessary to download drivers

Tip: For the required driver and all the latest firmware updates please refer to our website:www.ifi-audio.com/download-hub/

S/PDIF 3.5mm Coaxial/Optical input

When USB-C (item 15) is not used, connect to a Coaxial/Optical cable (through a Toslink Mini-Plug).

Tip: The USB signal has priority over S/PDIF. To enter S/PDiF mode, please make sure there is no signal going through the USB input.

Tip: a Toslink Mini-Plug to Toslink adaptor is included for connecting a Toslink optical cable.

Balanced 4.4mm line input/output

a) Output (variable) – when the input mode is USB, Bluetooth or S/PDIF
b) Input – when the input mode is Line

Single-ended 3.5mm input/output

a) Output (variable) – when the input mode is USB, Bluetooth or S/PDIF
b) Input – when the input mode is Line

iEMatch switch

With the iEMatch, even the most sensitive In-Ear-Monitors (IEMs) can be matched to the xDSD Gryphon.

iEMatch

Specifications

Inputs:
USB-C
Bluetooth 5.1™ (aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX LL, LDAC, LHDC/HWA, AAC and SBC Codec)
S-PDIF 3.5mm Coaxial
Balanced 4.4mm
Single-Ended 3.5mm

Formats:

DSD

DSD512/256/128/64, Octa/Quad/Double/Single-Speed

DXD

768/705.6/384/352.8kHz), Double/Single-Speed DXD

PCM

768/705.6/384/352.8/192/176.4/96/88.2/48/44.1kHz

MQA

384/352.8kHz

Bluetooth

Up to 96kHz

DAC: Bit-Perfect DSD & DXD DAC by Burr Brown